Cold and hot rolling process of scrap cars for producing a compact steel mass

ABSTRACT

A cold and hot rolling process of scrap cars for producing a compact steel briquet as a raw material for the steel-making industry, wherein scrap cars are forcibly cold and hot rolled by successive rollers into an elongated steel briquet which consists of a sheet of steel plate folded up into a number of upright pleats and molten together into a unit, while the width of said plate is maintained within the width of the rollers and materials other than iron and steel contained or attached to the cars are removed out of the process by melting them during the course of process.

Elite States Patent Jonghe [451 Apr.4,1972

[54] COLD AND HOT ROLLING PROCESS OF SCRAP CARS F OR PRODUCING A COMPACT STEEL MASS [72] Inventor: Yo Jonghe, No. 18, 3-chome Nanyodori,

Nagoya, Japan [22] Filed: July 16, 1969 [21] Appl. No.: 842,153

[52] U.S. Cl. ..75/63, 72/181, 100/DlG. l [51] ..C21b 7/00, B21d 5/08 [58] Field of Search ..75/44, 63; 72/181; l00/DIG. 1

[56] References Cited 7 UNITED STATES PATENTS 316,209 4/1885 Westerman ..75/44 S 1,860,820 5/1932 Scott ..72/181 X Primary Examiner-Allen B. Curtis Attorney-Woodhams, Blanchard and Flynn [57] ABSTRACT A cold and hot rolling process of scrap cars for producing a compact steel briquet as a raw material for the steel-making industry, wherein scrap cars are forcibly cold and hot rolled by successive rollers into an elongated steel briquet which consists of a sheet of steel plate folded up into a number of upright pleats and molten together into a unit, while the width of said plate is maintained within the width of the rollers and materials other than iron and steel contained or attached to the cars are removed out of the process by melting them during the course of process.

6 Claims, 24 Drawing Figures Patented April 4, 1972 3,653,878

7 Sheets-Sheet l 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 I 1 RO|OiO| INVENTOR. m MKA/A/Z v BY Patented April 4, 1972 3,653,878

7 Sheets-Shet 5 INVENTOR.

V0 J0/V6f/5 Patented April 4, 1972 3,653,878

7 Sheets-Sheet a BY I wig W Patented April 4, 1972 I 7 Sheets-Sheet 7 COLD AND HOT ROLLING PROCESS OF SCRAP CARS FOR PRODUCING A COMPACT STEEL MASS This invention relates to a hot cutting process of scrap material of scrap cars and the like. The principal object of this invention is efficiently and economically to dispose of scrap material of scrap cars and the like through a continuous operation by a simple and rational process, and also to change said material into steelmaking material of high purity to realize the recycling of resources most effectively.

The accompanying drawing shows embodiments of this invention.

FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 are side views each showing one third cut of a series of devices according to this invention, while FIG. 2' shows another embodiment of FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 are plan views of the above.

FIG. 7 is a front view of an automatic turning over unit in said series of devices.

FIG. 8 to FIG. 11 are schematic front views each showing a processing state of the scrap material by means of a contracting unit in said series of devices.

FIG. 12 to FIG. 15 are schematic plan views corresponding to FIGS. 8 to 11.

FIG. 16 to FIG. 18 are schematic views each showing an operating and processing state by means of a cutting unit in said series of devices.

FIG. 19 to FIG. 23 are schematic views of shapes of material changing from flat plate-like material to steel-making material to be cut.

Referring now to embodiments of this invention in accordance with the drawings, scrap material of scrap cars and the like is rolled into a plate-like material by means of a roll, then contracted in width by applying an angular roll, and said material is passed through an integrated heating furnace to remove the impurities, and said hot processed material is pushed into a contracting guide (metal mold) by means of an angular roll for carrying out primary contraction, and then are strongly compressed into rectangular material of high density, and further said material is cut into the required size. These processes are automatically performed as a continuous operation. Thus, an operational method of this invention is outlined, and the following are concerned with a series of devices performing said processes.

Scrap material S of scrap cars and the like, excepting engines, shafts, transmissions, differential gears and the like is carried on a platform B and is fed by an infeed hydraulic cylinder A into toothed rolls 1, l' which are rotated by a dual shaft driving system of a rolling unit C. Material S, passed through said rolls 1, l is crushed by rolling down rolls 5, 5, 8, 8' of said unit C, whereby the spaces on the car body of thin steel plate are rolled, and die block steel, wood and the like of the car body are crushed to reduce the volume of material 5,. In pushing in the material by means of said cylinder A, material S is forced to pass through control guides 4, 4 of side frames in cone shape and of sharp quality, whereby both sides of car are buckled inwardly so that extension of width of said scrap material by said rolls 1, I is minimized. Projecting teeth Ia, 5a, 8a in truncated cone shape on the circumference of said rolls 1, I, 5, 5', 8, 8 make material S, drivingly engage and be crushed better by said rolls. Material S, passed through said rolling down unit C via each of said rolls is substantially crushed on the strong parts and, although uneven, the surface becomes plate like and the original shape is completely lost.

Next, said material S, is fed between verrucous rolls 11, 11' provided with verrucous (rounded) projections 11a of a cold roll unit D to press and roll the remaining spaces. Further, through the strong cold rolling of plain rolls 14, 14', material 8, is made plate like as shown in FIG. 19. Plate like material S passed through plain rolls l4, 14' is sent to some pairs (e.g. four pairs) of angular rolls 17, 17', 20, 20', 23, 23 26, 26 ofa contracting unit E to contract material S sharply and to reduce the projected area into substantially half. The angular projecting notches of said rolls l7, 17, 20, 20', 23, 23, 26, 26' are composed to have higher angles in order and to increase numbers of angles in order as shown in FIG. 8 to FIG. 15, and material is contracted by passing through each roll and is provided with bends or grooves in the longitudinal direction for reducing the width. Material 8;, contracted sharply in width by the longitudinal grooves is pushed out on a pusher-type conveyer G via a guide F, and is fed into an integrated heating furnace H by means of chain driven pushers 29, 29'. Said chain driven pushers might be replaced, as shown in FIG. 2', by a roll conveyor consisting of a number of rollers 52 driven in a same direction, viz., clockwise in this instance.

Material S, is moved in the furnace by a roll conveyor consisting of a train of rollers 53 driven by a chain 54 to be heated gradually to around l,l0OC. and the impurities attached to material are melted, burnt and removed. The inside of said furnace is divided into several temperature ranges e.g. three ranges in this embodiment such that the first temperature range is around 500' C. for lead, tin, zinc and the like, the second temperature range is around 500-800 C. for aluminum and similar system alloys, the third temperature range is around 800" -I,l00 C. for brass, bronze and the like, and the separation of the various scrap metals is automatically made by this classification of melting. Each of said temperature ranges is provided with receptacles and outlets 30, 30, 30" on the furnace bottom and the selectively melted liquid is drawn out from the outlet.

Thus, by passing material 5;, through said heating furnace H the impurities of nonferrous metals and wood which are troublesome in steel-making are completely removed. Material S is then fed into a hot roll contracting unit K through a guide J to finish hot roll operation. In advance of subjecting the material 8;, to the finish hot roll operation, the material could be subjected to a device 55 provided, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 6, between the guide J and the hot roll contracting unit K, which comprises an upper and lower drum shaft 56 and 57 each driven counter to each other and having a number of chains 58 the ends of which are fitted to the circumferential surface of both shafts with constant intervals therebetween. When the material 8, passes between the upper and lower shafts, the chains 58 beat the material and remove residua attached to the material heated in the furnace H. Material S is fed between angular rolls 31, 31' of said unit K and folds are formed by a hot operation. The scrap material is then forced into a contracting guide 34 by the power of rolls 31, 31, and by reducing the width in the direction of folding the bent surface of material and by passing through longitudinal gearing rolls 35, 35 and hot rolling by means of longitudinal plain rolls 40, 40', as shown in FIG. 21 the materials 8;, is completely folded to form material S, and is strongly rolled down and is changed into a rectangular shape of high density.

Rectangular material 8,, thus finished by the rolling process, is transferred as in the hot operation condition to a turning over guide 45 of an automatic turning over unit L, and, when its rear end passes beyond said longitudinal plain rolls 40, 40, said material 8,, is turned over onto the lower step of the guide 45 and falls onto a constantly rotating driving roll conveyer 46 and is advanced to a direction of a cutting unit N in the state as shown in FIG. 22. As shown in FIG. 16 to FIG. 18, material S is cut into a required size (as illustrated in FIG. 23). In other words, material S, in the state as shown in FIG. 22 is slid on the top surface of a blade board 47 having an immovable blade 48, hits against a stop 51 and is cut into the required size by a movable cutter 49 having a blade 50. The length of cut material 55 is the distance between the stop 51 and the blade. The automatically cut material 5,, is automatically removed by means of a carrying out unit M. After material S hits against said stop 51 and has been cut advancing of material 54 is stopped until the movable blade 50 rises again and is released from the top surface of material. During this period, the roll conveyer 46 and the lower surface of material are in a slipping state. Material S, advances immediately after the movable blade 50 rises from the top surface of material until it hits the stop 51.

As for the construction of said rolls, upper bearings 2, 2', 6, 6', 9, 9', 12, 12', l5, 15, 18, 18', 21, 21', 24, 24', 27, 27, 32, 32' of said gearing roll, compressing roll, verrucous roll, plain roll, angular roll, are connected to oil pressure cylinders 3, 3', 7, 7', 10, 10, 13, 13', 16, 16, 19, 19, 22, 22', 25, 25, 28, 28, 33, 33' to be movable up and down and the roll gap is adjustable according to the size of material. As required, the cylinder is provided with a pressure differential valve to level the pressure on the roll surface when material is passing therepast. Material passing through the upper and lower gap of said rolls is applied with a contracting operation. The roll gap of said longitudinal type gearing rolls 35, 35 is determined according to the width of material advanced from the contracting guide 34, and fixed by bearings 36, 36', 37, 37 provided with threads 38, 38', 39, 39' which can be adjusted and fixed, and longitudinal plain rolls 40, 40 in turn are sup ported by movable bearings 41, 41', 42, 42' and said roll 40 is adjusted by the bearings 41, 41 and fixed by the threads 43, 43' based on the left hand side against the advancing direction of material. On the other hand the plain roll 40 is supported by the bearings 42, 42 provided with oil pressure cylinders 44, 44 in the rear and material is strongly rolled as said above, and said bearings 42, 42' are able to return against the extraordinary resistance of the material.

Thus, this invention rolls scrap material of scrap cars and the like into plate like material, then contracts the material by folding it through the angular rolls, then the impurities and select nonferrous metals are removed by passing through an integrated heating furnace classified by the heating temperature ranges, then said hot material is pushed into the contracting guide by means of the angular rolls for the primary contraction, to contract material strongly to make a high density rectangular shaped plate, then the material is cut in a heating state into the required size of complete steel material by means of a strong cutter whereby a continuous hot cutting process is performed. In consequence, said material in massive volume is made into plate like material by the strong cold rolling, and is folded in longitudinal direction by the angular rolling and is contracted sharply in width by steps, and the next process is eased. By passing through an integrated heating furnace which can effectively use the difference of the melting temperatures of nonferrous metals and the range of temperature inside the furnace, the systematic melting and selection of nonsteel goods are performed and said hot material can be turned into material with best steelmaking quality. Said hot material from which the impurities are removed can be applied with the primary contraction through the strong angular roll and the contracting guide (metal mould), and further can be contracted and reduced in width in such a state as to be of high density and smooth so as to be easily cut by strong hot rolling through longitudinal rolls. With continuous cutting, the material is completely disposed to become finished steel-making material.

Thus, material of scrap cars and the like can be applied with such a highly effective process as the hot cutting by a continuous simple method without requiring a large sum of money for installations and by a rational manner of vertical operation.

Further the impurities are automatically removed and steelmaking material of high purity can be recycled easily, which will be a big contribution to the utilization and saving .of resources. According to this invention a new field will be developed in the effective method of disposing of scrap cars and the like, and there will be no need of big installations such as a big type oil pressure press as seen in the European countries and the U.S.A. and a highly effective process of a simple installation will be available, which will result in a remarkable increase of production of steel-making material utilizing scrap cars and the like and will effectively realize mass production at moderate price.

Thus, this invention has such extraordinary merits in the industrial fields and in its usage that it is watched with great expectation for the national contribution.

What is claimed is:

1. A process for producing steel-making material from scrap objects, such as automobile bodies, which comprises the steps of moving the unheated scrap objects in succession through a series of sets of opposed crushing rolls, in which'the rolls of each set are vertically spaced from each other and the vertical spacing between the rolls of the respective sets progressively diminishes in the direction of travel of the scrap objects, the scrap objects passing between the rolls of the sets in series and being progressively flattened thereby in order to form a platelike object;

then forwarding the plate-like object through a series of sets of opposed contracting rolls with the rolls of each set having interfitting ridges and grooves, in which the ridges and grooves of the respective sets progressively increase in depth and/or number in the direction of travel of the plate-like object, the plate-like object passing between the rolls of the sets in series and the width of said platelike object being progressively diminished by progressively forming longitudinally extending substantially vertically projecting zigzag flutes in said plate-like object;

then moving said plate-like object through an elongated furnace having a series of zones of progressively increasing temperature in the direction of travel of the plate-like object so that the plate-like object is heated to a maximum temperature below the melting point of ferrous material and the non-ferrous materials in said plate-like objects are melted out, separately collecting the molten materials from the respective zones of said furnace whereby separately to recover molten materials of different melting point ranges;

then forwarding the hot, plate-like object exiting from said furnace through a contracting unit in which the sides of the object are pressed toward each other in order to reduce the width of said object and to force said flutes into substantially parallel contiguous relationship so that the object becomes of bar-like form; and then cutting said hot bar-like object into pieces of a selected length.

2. A process according to claim 1, in which the plate-like object is forwarded between a first set of contracting rolls having a single ridge and cooperating groove whose sides diverge at a relatively large included angle, thence through a second set of contracting rolls having a single ridge and cooperating groove of greater depth and whose sides diverge at a smaller included angle than the ridge and groove of the first set, thence through a third set of contracting rolls having a central ridge and groove the same as the ridge and groove on said second set and also having side ridges and grooves on opposite sides of said central ridge and groove, said side ridges and grooves being of smaller depth and having sides which diverge at a greater included angle than the central ridge and groove, and thence through a fourth set of contracting rolls having three ridges and cooperating grooves which are the same as said central ridge and groove of said second set.

3. A process according to claim 1, in which there are separately recovered from adjacent temperature zones in said elongated furnace l) molten materials having a melting point of 500 C.'or less, (2) molten materials having a melting point in the range of about 500-800 C., and (3) molten materials having a melting point in excess of about 800 C and below the melting point of ferrous material.

4. A process according to claim 1, in which the plate-like object is heated to a maximum temperature of about l,lO0 C. in said furnace.

5. A process according to claim 1, including the step of removing residue from said hot plate-like object after it leaves the furnace and before it enters said contracting unit.

6. A process according to claim 1, in which in said contracting unit the hot plate-like object is first forwarded through a stationary contracting guide of progressively diminishing width in the direction of travel of said object and then passes between a series of pairs of spaced-apart contracting rolls, the spacing between the respective pairs of contracting rolls progressively diminishing in the direction of travel of said object. 

2. A process according to claim 1, in which the plate-like object is forwarded between a first set of contracting rolls having a single ridge and cooperating groove whose sides diverge at a relatively large included angle, thence through a second set of contracting rolls having a single ridge and cooperating groove of greater depth and whose sides diverge at a smaller included angle than the ridge and groove of the first set, thence through a third set of contracting rolls having a central ridge and groove the same as the ridge and groove on said second set and also having side ridges and grooves on opposite sides of said central ridge and groove, said side ridges and grooves being of smaller depth and having sides which diverge at a greater included angle than the central ridge and groove, and thence through a fourth set of contracting rolls having three ridges and cooperating grooves which are the same as said central ridge and groove of said second set.
 3. A process according to claim 1, in which there are separately recovered from adjacent temperature zones in said elongated furnace (1) molten materials having a melting point of 500* C. or less, (2) molten materials having a melting point in the range of about 500* - 800* C., and (3) molten materials having a melting point in excess of about 800* C and below the melting point of ferrous material.
 4. A process according to claim 1, in which the plate-like object is heated to a maximum temperature of about 1,100* C. in said furnace.
 5. A process according to claim 1, including the step of removing residue from said hot plate-like object after it leaves the furnace and before it enters said contracting unit.
 6. A process according to claim 1, in which in said contracting unit the hot plate-like object is first forwarded through a stationary contracting guide of progressively diminishing width in the direction of travel of said object and then passes between a series of pairs of spaced-apart contracting rolls, the spacing between the respective pairs of contracting rolls progressively diminishing in the direction of travel of said object. 